e of the East upon
literature, upon scholarship, upon thought, was scarcely perceptible.
People read indeed the "Arabian Nights" in M. Galland's delightful
version; read the Persian tales of Petit de la Croix; read all the
translations of the many sham Oriental tales which the popularity of
Galland and Petit de la Croix had called for in Paris, and which the
Parisian writers were ready to supply. But serious Oriental
scholarship can hardly be said to have existed in England. Sir William
Jones was the only Englishman of {255} distinction who was earnestly
devoted to Eastern studies; but his Persian Grammar, which was in some
degree the foundation-stone of Persian scholarship in England, had not
yet appeared, and Sir William Jones was still writing to Reviczki those
delightful letters in which he raves about the poetry of the Arabs and
the Persians. Thus the scholarship of Warren Hastings placed him in an
exceedingly small minority among Englishmen of letters. Hastings was
not the man to be alarmed or discouraged by finding himself in a
minority. He was as impassioned an admirer of Persian poetry as Sir
William Jones; he considered that the Persian language should be
included in the studies of all well-educated men; he dreamed of
animating the waning fires of Oriental learning at Oxford. He had a
vision in his mind of a new scholarship, to be called into being by the
generosity of the East India Company. He thought of Englishmen
becoming as familiar with the deeds of Rustum as with the wrath of
Achilles, as intimate with the Ghazels of Hafiz as with the Odes of
Horace. He seems to have visited Dr. Johnson in the hope of securing
him as an ally in his scheme. The scheme came to nothing, but the
learning, the literary taste, and scholarly ambition of Hastings made a
strong impression upon Johnson, who entertained a stately regard for
the young man from India.

It soon became plain to Warren Hastings that he was not going to make
much of a livelihood either by Persian poetry or by the calling of a
man of letters. His thoughts had turned back to India within a year of
his return to England, and he had applied for employment to the
Company, but for some reason his request was not granted. In 1768,
however, the Court of Directors appointed him to a seat in Council at
Madras, and early in the following year, 1769, he sailed again for
India on his most momentous voyage. Not only was that ship, the "Duke
of Grafton,"